(Photo courtesy of GEM)
International (MNN) ― Interest is growing in marketplace or tentmaker-style missions. For centuries, Christian missionaries have used business as a vehicle for sharing the Gospel in other countries. John Brown, who works with Greater Europe Mission to facilitate marketplace missions, said the strategy fits very well with today's missions climate.
"Due to access issues in countries, due to financial realities in the missions community, a lot of people are taking a new look at this," he said. "And we're seeing this expand incredibly throughout the missions movement right now."
Marketplace missions can take a few different forms. It includes short-term missions as well as missionaries who start their own businesses. Brown is "extremely encouraged and excited about" a third form, which is a "tentmaker class of service, where people go with companies overseas...and those companies give them greater access to people, and oftentimes greater missional success."
It's a strategy that dates all the way back to the apostle Paul and other tentmaker missionaries in the Old Testament. Even William Carey, "probably the father of the modern missionary movement," incorporated business into his missions work, Brown said. More missionaries are now doing the same, because it has become increasingly difficult for them to raise support.
"I think mission agencies are by necessity, but beyond necessity: probably by God's providence, are looking at alternative ways," Brown said.
Although working a professional career does take a lot of time, it also leads to greater opportunities to share the Gospel.
"The type of church that people are being drawn to is a very missional church, and so outreach happens in non-traditional locations like office boardrooms or restaurants or in homes," Brown explained. "And the tentmaker, or the marketplace professional, is well-positioned to interact with people in that environment. Often they have access to people that traditional missionaries would not."
Marketplace missions is not for everyone, but people who approach it the right way can have great success.
"We find that people in the marketplace, if they have an integrated mindset about their ministry, they'll be very successful," Brown said. "So they view their job not just as 'this is my ability to get into the country so that I can do ministry,' but they view their job as the vehicle for accomplishing ministry. We see a lot of success."
GEM trains tentmaker missionaries in key elements of missional success, such as church planting, teamwork, and the spiritual disciplines. It has four or five missionary units already working as tentmaker missionaries in Europe.
"They're opening up a new class of service, where people who might be employed by an international company can be trained, can be part of a Greater Europe Mission team, can have a missional strategy that's going to engage culture and make a difference in the location that they're planted in, and really see some amazing things happen for the Lord," Brown said.
About 30 more people are exploring the possibility of doing the same kind of work with GEM. Some of them already have job opportunities in Europe, and some are still looking for opportunities. They are seeking God's leading for their future ministry in Europe, a continent that desperately needs the Gospel of Christ.
"Less than 2 percent of people in greater Europe right now are followers of Christ, so it's quite a difficult and challenging mission field," Brown said.
Brown is excited about the way that GEM and other missions agencies are using marketplace missions. He encouraged Christians to pray for the development of the strategy.
"Just pray for wisdom that as we carve out training and develop strategies to effectively use marketplace people, that ultimately the church in Europe, North Africa, Turkey, Russia, and other places would grow," said Brown. "And pray that God would call out the right people for this. It's not for everyone, but there are many people who are restless right now and don't know exactly how to respond to that. God is calling them out through the marketplace to see God's church expand throughout the world."
You can join the discussion about marketplace missions at www.mktplcmin.wordpress.com.
